PhD4Eva

Not a South Park guy, it's a turn of phrase I've heard, thought it applied here. Always happy to get a laugh though.

Well that's the other thing. If you're working at a school where you're teaching kids an actual vocation that will require them to venture out in the real world and get a job, then you should be capable of returning an email in a timely fashion. I can't think of a business where that won't be important. Answering emails, even ones that have to negotiate difficult subjects, and doing it in a timely and professional manner, is way up there on the necessary skill sets list for life in 2019, whether you want to work in Pharma or on Wall Street or make and sell your own homemade kombucha. If you're a philosophy professor who is training students to sit in a windowless room reading Kant, and smelling their own farts, I might cut you some slack, if not you should do a bit better. That's some steam blown off. And now I'll take a deep breath and remind myself to be more generous. There, that's better.

I guess, I mean its 2019. What, can you only answer you're email if you're at the office and have access to your Commodore 64? This is largely how we communicate these days, it's not a million miles off someone walking up to you, asking you a question, and you just stare into the distance or walk away. It feels really unprofessional to me, especially when dealing with people who may someday be colleagues. Maybe my perspective is warped.

I am beginning Doctoral work in the fall after over 20 years working (mostly) in corporate America. Over the course of the last few years investigating different programs, and just generally getting the lay of the land in my field of study, one of the most frustrating things is what I'm coming to realize might be my unrealistic expectations when it comes to returning emails. In my current job I get hundreds of emails a day, to be fair not all of them require a response per se. When I do get an email that is asking something of me or requires me to respond, be it from a colleague or someone outside the company, I ALWAYS respond. There's no question about it. I may be busy, and it may have to wait 24, 48 or even 72 hours, but I always get back to them. Sometimes the answers are complicated, sometimes people are looking for work and explaining to them why they have not been hired or aren't getting more shifts is uncomfortable, but there is no circumstance under which you simply ignore them (unless maybe they are being aggressive or disrespectful). Have I ever missed one and not responded, yes of course, but when the person inevitably follows up I would respond right away. So far my experience in corresponding with people in academia over email has been mixed, but there has been a large portion of people who just don't respond and they are often people who I am not corresponding with for the first time. It's absolutely maddening. Again, sometimes the subject matter may be complicated or awkward, but if you are professional adult you work through it, you figure it out and you fashion some sort of response, even if it isn't the one they were hoping for. Such is life. As I move forward I thought it would be helpful to get others perspectives on this. As I said, it might be me, maybe this is just life in academia and I need to (and probably will) get used to it. I'm also open to, and probably guilty of, relying too much on email when I should be using the phone more, but that can be complicated too. Thanks

I think I probably know what the right answer is, I'm just working my way through the disappointment over getting the total goose egg at my first choice. I had such a hard time through this whole process of getting people to respond coming from completely outside of academics. These guys did and were so positive. The words "you're in" actually escaped the program directors mouth during our phone conversation and I bought it hook, line and sinker. Then once the app was in, nothing, except a form email letting me know they were not offering me a spot in the program. I must have really ballsed up the application or something, don't know. Such is life.

Here's my conundrum, such as is... Option 1: I have been offered a spot in a PhD program with a four year TAship (tuition forgiven and a fairly generous stipend) and the possibility of a NSA fellowship for years three and four, which I will have to apply for. It is not my first choice, if I were being generous its probably third choice out of four (I could only apply to a limited number of schools due to geographical restrictions), though there wasn't much between two and three because my first choice was so far ahead of the other two. Option 1 is a school that is ranked Top 50 nationally overall, but does not have a name in my particular area. I've met with everyone at Option 1, they are lovely and have been very honest and straightforward about being a program in a bit of a transition (they are overhauling a lot of the curriculum mostly to make it more streamlined). The director of the program seems great, couldn't say a bad word about anyone there. Option 2: My first choice by a mile, after some wildly optimistic early interactions with both a POI and the Director of the Program, turned me down. I'm still waiting on feedback as to why. The program is 3 years instead of 4 which is good for me as I am an older student who has been working in "the real world" for 2 decades. It just has a huge name in my industry and would go a long way to keeping me connected to it, which I think will be important when I'm ready to look for a job. My question is whether I should not look a gift horse in the mouth, an excellent University is offering to pay me to go back to school and I should just take that and run with it. The other option, depending on the feedback I get, is to punch up my application and apply again to my first choice school. Thoughts?